Formula 1: for Jos Verstappen, the Red Bull team “will explode” if Horner stays in office

“There is tension (in the team) as long as he remains in place,” Sakhir, the former Dutch F1 driver, told the sports supplement of the British daily Daily Mail on Saturday, a few hours after his son's triumph in the Bahrain Grand Prix, kick-off of the season. “The team risks tearing itself apart. She can't continue like this. It will explode,” said Jos Verstappen. “He plays the victim, when it is he who is at the origin of the problems,” he added about the historic boss of the Red Bull team.

On Wednesday, the Austrian firm announced that its internal investigation had led it to clear the Briton Christian Horner of the charges against him. While several teams denounced a lack of transparency during the internal investigation, the person concerned assured Thursday that the unity in his team “has never been so strong”.

But the sending, shortly after, of an anonymous email, containing in particular WhatsApp messages allegedly written by Horner, to journalists following F1, to motorsport officials or even to competing teams, relaunched the affair. The affair was revealed at the beginning of February when a first article appeared in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

Asked by the Daily Mail about the origin of the information leaked to the media, Jos Verstappen denied any involvement in this matter. "That does not make sense. Why would I do that when Max is doing so well here?”, he assured. Christian Horner, married to ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, present at his side on Saturday during the Bahrain Grand Prix, has always denied the facts with which he was accused and said he was convinced after the GP that his position was not not threatened by the fallout from the investigation.

“A complete and lengthy internal procedure was conducted (by a lawyer external to Red Bull, editor’s note), and the grievance raised was rejected. End of story,” he also told the press in Bahrain.